House committee seeks more H-P testimony

This corrects the California Attorney General's name from a prior version

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The congressional probe into the pretexting scandal at Hewlett-Packard Co. could soon step up to another level as the chairman of the House committee investigating the matter is considering asking for special subpoena power in the case, a spokesman for the committee said Wednesday.

The spokesman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee said that Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.), the committee chairman, is seeking the power to issue subpoenas "off hours" without a formal committee vote to summon witnesses to testify in the probe about allegedly illegal actions H-P took to investigate leaks coming from its corporate boardroom. The committee normally has to vote on issuing such subpoenas, but will hold a vote on whether to give Barton, and Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), the ranking minority member on the committee, the off-hours subpoena powers.

If granted subpoena powers, the House investigation would move to a higher level, as for now, the committee has only asked H-P officials and others tied to the case to voluntarily appear before the hearing on Sept. 28.

On Wednesday, the House probe expanded to include more company officials, while reports about the steps H-P considered taking to find the source of boardroom leaks have the case looking like a bizarre episode of corporate espionage.

The committee requested that H-P senior counsel Kevin Hunsaker and Fred Adler, H-P's head of information technology security investigations attend the hearing before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Hunsaker and Adler have been given until 5 p.m. Eastern Wednesday to say if they will voluntarily attend the hearing.

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Chairwoman Patricia Dunn, company general counsel Ann Baskins and outside counsel Larry Sonsini are slated to testify at the hearing.

Ronald DeLia, a Boston-based private investigator tied to the pretexting scandal, will reportedly also attend the hearing, but is expected to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incriminating testimony.

Additionally, the committee has asked for the testimony of Anthony Gentilucci, H-P's head of global security investigations, and Joe Depante, owner of Melbourne, Fla.-based investigation firm Action Research Group. The committee has given Gentilucci and Adler until noon ET Thursday to say if they will testify at the hearing.

Calls to H-P and DeLia's attorney for further comment weren't immediately returned.

The latest requests for testimony come amid reports that Dunn and Baskins closely directed the course of the investigation into leaks believed coming out of confidential H-P board meetings. According to the Wall Street Journal said, the two were kept informed of the investigation's tactics by company security officials who ran the probe, and private investigators H-P hired. The Journal and MarketWatch are units of Dow Jones & Co. Inc.
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Additionally the New York Times reported in its online edition that earlier this year, H-P considered planting investigators posing as clerical employees or janitorial crews in the San Francisco newsrooms of the Journal and Cnet Networks Inc.
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in order to spy on reporters believed to be talking with H-P board members. The Times said it isn't clear if H-P acted upon the plan.

The H-P investigation stemmed from Dunn's belief that information from company board meetings was turning up in the press. The investigation led to board member George Keyworth as the source of the leaks. On Sept. 12, Keyworth quit the H-P board shortly after Dunn said she would remain on the board, but turn the chairmanship over to Chief Executive Mark Hurd in January.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer is investigating the actions taken by the investigators hired by H-P, and has said criminal charges could be forthcoming against current and former H-P officials. A spokesman for Lockyer's office said no official statements on the H-P matter would be made Wednesday.

H-P's stock has remained relatively unaffected by the pretexting matter. The technology bellwether's shares rose 43 cents to close at $36.78 Wednesday, and are up 88 cents since the pretexting scandal became public on Sept. 6.

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